The attempt by Stanislaw August Poniatowski (1764-95) 'to create anew the Polish world' was one of the most audacious enterprises of reform undertaken by any enlightened monarch in the eighteenth century. None started in less promising circumstances. Politically the King was trapped between a Russian protectorate and a nobility wedded to its anarchic liberty. The beginnings of the Polish Enlightenment had yet to make more than ripples on the stagnant waters of Polish culture. Yet by 1791, Poland-Lithuania had made a huge cultural advance, and had given herself a constitution admired across Europe. Tragically for Poland, her neighbours then destroyed much of these achievements and partitioned the country out of existence. Stanislaw August died in exile, cursed by most of his compatriots to this day. In Poland's Last King, Richard Butterwick reassesses the achievement of Poland's last and most controversial king. He shows how Stanislaw's radical plans for reform of Poland's constitution and culture were profoundly influenced by his love of England, and examines the successes and limitations of the Polish Enlightenment.

Richard Butterwick makes an important new contribution to our knowledge ... Butterwick's book is based on extensive research. His comprehensive discussion of Polish-English cultural contacts comes from fresh archival material. The political sections, while including archival material, come mostly from a review of Polish historiography of the 1990s which is unknown to English-language readers. * Daniel Stone, The International History Review XXI.2 June 1999 *
Butterwick is a young but extremely well-read historian less interested in Stanislaw August's efficacy or political afterlife than in the reforms he had attempted during his reign as well as the possible influence of the English model on his projects and decisions. * George Gomori, Journal of Europena Studies XXX *
Butterwick has produced a meticulously researched and elegantly written account of Stanislaw's fascination with English cultural, intellectual and political life... Butterwick demonstrates convincingly through a close analysis of Stanislaw's writing on government not only that the Polish king had a serious commitment to the political reform of Poland... but also that the English form of government was an important model for him... Butterwick skillfully demonstrates the significance of English ideas in Polish constitutional thought. * Journal of Modern History *
The sheer thoroughness of Richard Butterwick's research is very impressive ... an ... extremely interesting and illuminating book. * Jan Jederzejewski, Irish Slavonic Studies, Vol 19, 1998 *
Butterwick's superb scholarly study on a specific theme that touched almost every aspect of the king's career is an important contribution ... this study (based in both extensive archival research and a thorough mastery of the printed sources) throws Stanislaw and his reign into a new scholarship. * P. W. Knoll, CHOICE *
the first major work of scholarship to explore in depth, and on the basis of extensive archival research in Poland and England, the king's Anglophilia ... Butterwick tackles this task with eminent success; he writes elegantly and with a confidence born out of a thorough knowledge of his subject ... There is much here for the comparative historian. The book enriches our understanding of eighteenth-century Anglophilia and provides a new perspective on England's place in the enlightenment. In short, it is an impressive and stimulating achievement. * W.H. Zawadzki, Abingdon School, Oxon, EHR, June 1999 *